Mental strength as important as muscles as men’s eight rowing team prepares for do-or-die Olympic race

It's a sport that demands muscles and gut-busting endurance. Yet, rowing can also be as much about the strength of mind as the power of muscles

Standing at six-foot-six and weighing 235 pounds Malcolm Howard would please most football coaches if he stepped onto the field as a middle linebacker. The Harvard-educated captain of Canada's men's eight rowing team offered a philosopher's explanation to the mind-bending head games involved in rowing.

"It's because you're facing backwards,'' Howard told Dave Feschuk of the Toronto Star.

"We laugh about it, but it's kind of truthful. Everyone is very visually stimulated. Everyone is very much (focused) on what they see and what's going on. In rowing, more so than in other sports, there's quite a psychological advantage to being out in front. Because (when you're out in front), you see (the rest of the field). They don't see you."

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The defending Olympic champion men's eight have their backs against the wall at the London Olympic Games. The Canadians were last in their four-boat heat Saturday. Canada now must finish in the top four of the six-boat repechage on Monday to qualify for Wednesday's medal race.

After months of training and conditioning physical strength won't be an issue for the Canadians in the do-or-die race. The race will be decided by the crew that believes in their hearts and mind they can win.

"It's all in our heads," said Brian Price, the crew's 36-year-old coxswain. ''Everything is in our heads at this point."

Germany, which is undefeated in three years, won the heat to move directly to Wednesday's final. Hometown favourite Britain was second and the Netherlands third.

The United States also advanced in the other heat.

On Sunday, Canada's women's eight rowing team advanced to the final after easily winning their heat. Canada finished the 1,500-metre race in six minutes 13.91 seconds to move directly into medal contention for Thursday's final.

[Related: Canadian women's eight rows strongly into Olympic final]

Romania was second and the Netherlands third in the three-boat heat.

Canada will be joined in the final by the United States, who won their heat by more than six seconds.

The Canadian women's eight were edged out of a medal four years ago in Beijing with a fourth-place finish.

The men's eight came into the Olympics brimming with potential but also facing questions. The boat set a world-best time in their heat at the World Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland, a couple of months ago.

The boat has six first-time Olympians. Howard, Andrew Byrnes and Price remain from the crew that won gold four years ago in Beijing.

Howard believes it's his job to make sure there are no doubts before Monday's race.

''Being a leader in this boat, a performance like that, in many ways, it's my responsibility,'' he said.

[Related: Emilie Heymans and Jennifer Abel win Canada's first medals]

Often being the favourite carries its own weight of expectations.

Dave Calder and Scott Frandsen, Canada's entry in the men's pair, will race in Monday's semifinals.

The duo won silver in Beijing and are hoping to upgrade to gold here. Their chief competition is the New Zealand team of Eric Murray and Hamish Bond who have not lost a race since 2009.

Calder and Frandsen's time was 15 seconds slower than the New Zealanders but the Canadians' confidence hasn't been shaken.

"(The New Zealanders) have a huge bullseye on their back, and it's a weight and a pressure that can often be unwelcome," Calder said. "If you think about the American eight that won every race from 1997 to Sydney, and then had an epic fall from grace there — there are countless stories of boats not being able to follow through.

"I certainly don't expect them to implode, but I can only imagine the weight that they feel."

More London Olympics content on Yahoo! Canada Sports:
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• Video: Despatie says he's lucky to be in London
• Canada's women's eight rows strongly into Olympic final